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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23960524">your everlasting light</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/badritual/pseuds/badritual'>badritual</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Don't copy to another site, F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), Gen, Male-Female Friendship, No Plot/Plotless, Not Beta Read, Pen Pals, Slow To Update, different first meeting, eventual anidala, for now</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 15:53:41</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>923</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23960524</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/badritual/pseuds/badritual</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Ahsoka first meets him when she’s six years old.</i>
</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Anakin Skywalker &amp; Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi &amp; Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi &amp; Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi &amp; Anakin Skywalker &amp; Ahsoka Tano</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>110</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>So, I've had this prequels AU idea rattling around in my brain for a few years, where Anakin and Ahsoka meet shortly after the events of <i>The Phantom Menace</i> and become childhood friends/pen pals through <i>Attack of the Clones</i>, leading into <i>Revenge of the Sith</i>. I don't think I'll ever write the full, novel-length fic this idea deserves but I finally decided to just shoot out some vignettes from the universe and see what happens. </p>
<p>Title from "Everlasting Light," by the Black Keys.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span class="small"><span class="small">in me you can confide</span></span><br/>
<span class="small"><span class="small">when no one's by your side</span></span><br/>
<span class="small"><span class="small">— <i>Everlasting Light</i> - <b>The Black Keys</b></span></span>
</p>
<p>Ahsoka first meets him when she’s six years old. He’s older than her, taller and stronger, with sandy blond hair clipped short but for a single long braid that runs down his back. He has eyes the same crystal-clear shade of blue as hers. </p>
<p>Master Kenobi and his padawan have come to visit the crèche and take stock of the younglings. For some reason, they’d wanted to meet Ahsoka.</p>
<p>The padawan’s name is Anakin. She tries to fit her mouth around the syllables and vowels of his name, but it’s too complicated for her unskilled tongue. So she calls him Ani. He smiles at that and calls her Soka. </p>
<p>“If you’d like,” Ani says to her, haltingly, in her native tongue, “we can write each other letters.” </p>
<p>Ani bends down on one knee in front of her and pulls a scrap of flimsi and a stylus out of his pocket. He bows his head and writes out his name and address for her, in large block letters. </p>
<p>Ahsoka takes the stylus out of his hand and scrawls out the squiggly lines and dots of her name under his. “Soka,” she says, beaming at him when she takes the stylus back. </p>
<p>“That’s very good, Ahsoka,” Master Kenobi praises her with a small, fond smile. He tips his head to her, and then the nurse hovering over her shoulder. “But we must be going.”</p>
<p>Master Kenobi and Ani turn to leave and Ahsoka runs after them, ignoring the panicked shouts of the nurse. They both turn, pausing, squinting uncertainly at her as if they can’t be quite sure of what they’re seeing.</p>
<p>“Will you come back?” Ahsoka asks.</p>
<p>Master Kenobi and Ani share a look. “I am certain we will see each other again very soon,” Kenobi says. </p>
<p>“I’ll write to you, Soka,” Ani promises, pulling the stylus out of his pocket and pressing it into her hand. “Here. Keep this.”</p>
<p>“But it’s yours, Master Ani,” Ahsoka says. </p>
<p>“I have others just like it,” he reassures her, offering her a kind smile. </p>
<p>Ahsoka tucks the stylus into her pocket and smiles up at him. “May the Force be with you,” she says, saluting them both.</p>
<p>Master Kenobi gives her a fatherly pat on the head and then the two of them are gone. If Ahsoka hadn’t known any better she might think she had dreamt them up. But they had both been very real.</p>
<p>She pulls the stylus out of her pocket and gazes down at it. It’s warm in her hand, a tangling of hers and Ani’s Forces energies. </p>
<p>Ahsoka has made her very first friend. </p>
<p>Smiling, she slips the stylus back into her pocket.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>
  <i>When Anakin gets back to his quarters after a training session with Master Obi-Wan, there’s a folded sheet of flimsi waiting for him on his desk.</i>
</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I've got other things in the works I should probably be focusing on but I've kind of retreated from the Clone Wars angst at the moment. So here's another plotless chapter to this pen pals AU.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Anakin gets back to his quarters after a training session with Master Obi-Wan, there’s a folded sheet of flimsi waiting for him on his desk. His name is spelled out in blocky, unsteady Aurebesh and when he crosses his room and takes the note in hand, a spark of familiarity surges through his fingertips, as if the writer had left behind a piece of their Force signature on the page. </p><p>Anakin rips open the seal and starts reading, mouthing the words silently. He can almost hear the youngling’s voice, bright and cheerful, reading the letter herself.</p><p>
  <i>Dear Ani,</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Master Plo is helping me write you. Master Plo is helping me with my Basic since you don’t speak Togruti. I can teach you Togruti if you want. It is a very nice language. </i>
</p><p>
  <i>I liked meeting you. You were very nice. Big kids aren’t always nice to the little ones but you are, I could feel it. Master Plo said you are training to be a Jedi Knight. He said you are a Padawan right now. That is what I want to be when I get bigger. I want to be a Padawan for a brave Master Jedi like you. </i>
</p><p>
  <i>Please write back. </i>
</p><p>
  <i>May the Force be with you,<br/>
Your friend Soka</i>
</p><p>Anakin smiles, tracing a fingertip over the shaky lines of her letters fondly. He doesn’t have many friends here; most of the other Padawan learners are intimidated by him, he thinks. But not little Soka. </p><p>Anakin pulls open a drawer and finds a new stylus and a pad of flimsi. </p><p><i>Dear Soka</i>, he writes, <i>I was very happy to get your note.</i></p><p>Anakin writes on, the nub of the stylus scratching over the sheet of flimsi. </p><p>
  <i>I’d like it very much if you’d teach me Togruti. I know many languages but that is not one I’ve picked up yet. I’m sure you’d make a very good teacher.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>I am sorry the big kids aren’t always nice to you. The next time one of them says something to you, you can tell them Anakin Skywalker is your friend and he looks out for you. They’ll be sure to leave you alone, then!</i>
</p><p>
  <i>You’ll make a fine Padawan learner for some lucky Master some day. Perhaps we’d be able to work together. I think that would be fun!</i>
</p><p>
  <i>I’m honored to call you my friend. I don’t have very many of those. </i>
</p><p>
  <i>May the Force be with you,<br/>
Ani</i>
</p><p>As Anakin folds the note and scribbles her name on the front, a funny, warm feeling spreads through him. Like sunshine tingling through his veins. </p><p>And somehow, Anakin just knows the warmth that’s flooding his body is the truth that he and little Soka have just been tethered to one another through the Force.</p>
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